Banning Cartoons of Candidates + Banning Disparagement of Candidates Without Opponents' Permission + Limiting Distribution of Information on Legislators' Votes:

That's what IowaHouse Bill 229 (introduced by Richard Anderson and Mary Mascher) would do:

3. A person shall not distribute any campaign material concerning a target candidate with the intent to encourage the recipient of that campaign material to vote against that target candidate, without first ... obtaining, in writing, the prior consent of the beneficiary candidate to the distribution of the campaign material.

4. A person shall not distribute any campaign material that contains a cartoon, caricature, or defacement of the personal likeness of a target candidate.

5. A person shall not distribute any campaign material that contains photographs or other depictions of human role playing, except of a candidate who has approved the campaign material.

6. A person shall not distribute any campaign material regarding a vote cast by a target candidate who is a member of a house of the general assembly if a majority of the membership of the house of which the target candidate is a member voted in the same manner as the target candidate and if the majority of those members of that house of the general assembly who are affiliated with the political party which is not the party of the target candidate voted in the same manner as the target candidate.

7. Campaign material that refers to a prior vote cast by a target candidate on an issue must disclose all of the following:
a. The total votes cast for and against the issue.
b. The total votes cast on the issue by members of each political party of the membership of the legislative chamber of which the target candidate is a member.

Thanks to Prof. Rick Hasen (Election Law Blog), who has more on this. He and I of course agree that this proposal is blatantly unconstitutional.

Related Posts (on one page):

  1. This Cartoon Could Be Illegal, If Two Iowa Legislators Have Their Way:
  2. Banning Cartoons of Candidates + Banning Disparagement of Candidates Without Opponents' Permission + Limiting Distribution of Information on Legislators' Votes:
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This Cartoon Could Be Illegal, If Two Iowa Legislators Have Their Way:

Thanks to commenter Subpatre for passing it along, apropos these legislators' proposal to ban such speech, among other kinds of speech:

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